Which Silver Dollar Do you Own?

The majority of us would prefer our money in paper bill form, but for most of our history, United States money came in coins. For the average person, dollar coins were the most popular and the widest circulated. Even although coins have been minted in the United States in silver, others have been made in gold and in other base metal versions. Gold and gold-colored coins have also been produced by the United States. The current Sacagawea dollar is normally referred to as "golden".

The United States Mint first released silver dollar coins, the first coins issued, in 1794. Nowadays, the term "silver dollar coins" usually refers to any dollar coins anyhow of the metal used. Most people call money made of white metal and worth one-dollar, silver dollar coins but that is not accurate. The term silver dollar may refer to any white metal coin issued by the United States with a face value of one dollar. Some insist that a dollar coin is not a silver dollar unless it contains some of that metal.

The history of silver dollar coins is very extensive and many variations have been produced over the years. From 1794 until 1836, the United States Mint produced millions of silver dollar coins. The 1804 silver dollar is one of the rarest and most valuable coins in the world. Coin collectors highly prize all silver dollar coins from this period.

Some of the different types of silver dollar coins include the Flowing Hair version, the Draped Bust style, and the Gobrecht dollar. The dollar coins made with silver that most people are familiar with are the Seated Liberty coin and the Peace Dollar. The Peace Dollar, produced before and during the Great Depression, was still in popular circulation even after World War II. Silver coins have always been a rich part of the United States monetary heritage.

Attempts to revive these coins, even without the silver content, have failed in the last part of the twentieth century. The last time people took to these coins was the Eisenhower dollar made in the 1970's. A further attempt to get people to use these coins was tried with the Anthony dollar in 1980. Nobody wanted it. People had become too used to folding money. The Sacagawea dollar in a gold color, and therefore not really a silver dollar coin, started to be circulated in 2000.

Other countries such as Canada, Great Britain, and Australia have had better success with their own versions of these coins. Of course, they forced people to use these coins as they withdrew the paper money in circulation for their one unit currency.

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Mitch Hampson writes for Ebay

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